I’ve been slowly picking off trails for the Shenandoah 500 and had a decent stretch along the Appalachian Trail (AT) at the top of the southern district that I still needed to cover. The first version of this trip was just the AT, but severe storms prompted me to reschedule it. My original plan had us staying overnight at Pinefield Hut, but the rescheduled date has us right in the middle of the thru-hiker bubble. To avoid us overcrowding the shelter, I did a quick reroute that would drop us into Big Run—nice camping overall in that area, plus I’d get to cross the Rocky Mountain Run Trail and the Patterson Ridge Trail off my list.
As we headed to Shenandoah to set up the shuttle, I was convinced that we’d be hiking in rain (despite my positive posts about the forecast improving). Passing showers only added to my expectations, but the skies started to clear as we entered the park. By the time we reached Loft Mountain, the sun was out—cheering us (and me) immensely.
We dropped the cars at the Wayside and then headed to Smith Roach Gap to start the journey. Overall, this was a nice stretch of the AT, made even more pleasant by the still-blooming mountain laurel. At times, we were walking through a tunnel of laurel. We regrouped by the Pinefield Hut for a decent lunch break and then hiked for a short distance past the hut before hopping onto Skyline Drive for a brief road walk to pick up the Brown Mountain Trail. We followed that to the Rocky Mountain Run Trail and then started to make our way down to Big Run.
About 0.5 miles before the intersection with Big Run, Jonathan and Aileen spotted an amazing campsite with a waterfall(!) and a swimming hole(!!). This was an amazing spot, but there was just no way that we could fit our group there – maybe two to three shelters tops. We all indulged ourselves with a long break here and then carried on to a campsite further down the trail.
Merriment did ensue, and we all drifted to our shelters once it got dark.
Two owls briefly hooted around 12:30 a.m. (Full disclosure, I thought they were coyotes with an odd call until Jonathan impressed everyone with his owl knowledge the next morning.) The owls carried on a brief conversation and then fell silent. A few minutes later, the rain started—at times heavy—and lasted most of the night. I felt a few splashes on my forehead which seemed odd, and then eventually realized that my quilt was starting to get wet. I’ve had this tarp for years, but it seemingly decided to fail that night. Water slowly dripped on me overnight, despite my best efforts to wedge over to the side (rather hard in a hammock).
Let’s just say that it was not a great night of sleep.
The rain stopped around dawn. I went to give a wake-up call but saw that everyone was out of their tents and moving about. It seemed rather silly to start yelling at that point, so I focused on the important task of making coffee.
Then, it was all about getting back to Skyline Drive. No one seemed eager to take on the extra loop of the Frazier Discovery Trail—the siren call of the Wayside was strong. We headed out of camp and started making our way up the Patterson Ridge Trail. This was another new trail to me and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. It eventually popped us out on Skyline Drive. A short walk to the Wayside where hot coffee awaited. (Food service doesn’t start until 11 a.m., but the coffee was good and hot.)
All in all, a short trip but filled with good times. Congrats to our new members: Robin, Adam, Stephen, Martina, and Jesse!
DC UL Backpacking 
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